11:11 Medallion – Photo: L. Weikel
Portals
Today, of course, was the 11th day of November. 11/11. A day of portals, doorways, openings in time and space.
A day doesn’t go by that I don’t contemplate – if every so briefly – how our eldest son, Karl, facing the myriad array of portals on that fateful evening of 11/11/11 at 11:11 p.m., decided on an unconscious level that all those doorways to utterly new experiences beckoning to him were simply too enticing.
Timing and circumstances.
A New Perspective
I’ve always been aware that Karl died on Veterans Day. He didn’t serve in any of the armed forces, so I never sensed any particular connection between his death and the celebration of this national holiday.
This year, however, my attention was drawn to the fact that Veterans’ Day used to be called Armistice Day. Somewhere deep in my memory banks I’m sure I knew this; surely I learned it in a high school history class. But the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 – five years before I was born – and in the ‘70s, it seems like there was a lot more focus on either the here and now or the future, and much less on the past. In the ‘70s, World War I seemed a distant memory, eclipsed by the fact that World War II proved it was not, in fact, the ‘War to End All Wars,’ and both the Korean War and Vietnam shunted WWI even further down the memory hole.
Perhaps because of the pandemic we’re experiencing and the coordination between Armistice Day and the Spanish Flu of 1918, Armistice Day has been catching my attention more this year. Even when our Covid-19 was just taking root here and around the world, in the first three months of 2020, I remember reading about the dangers of a ‘second wave.’
Second Wave
Of course, back in March many in our country were (and still are) in denial that a pandemic is raging through our country. The thought that a ‘second wave,’ exponentially greater than the first could hit us in the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, was pretty well ignored. But I remember reading stories at the time about Armistice Day – November 11th, 1918 – and how people gathered in great throngs throughout the country, mostly without masks, to celebrate the cessation of fighting. Shortly after this great celebration, the pandemic spread like wildfire, killing more than had died in the war itself.
It was actually only this very morning that I realized that Armistice Day was established because the agreement to cease fire between the warring nations in WWI was formalized at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In fact, one article I read this morning even suggested that it was at the 11th minute of the 11th hour.
I didn’t realize the significance of all of those 11s in the establishment of Armistice Day.
One definition given for the word armistice is: An agreement for the cessation of active hostilities between two or more belligerents. (www.brittanica.com)
This calls to mind the significance of all the 11s. The confluence of all these portals created an opportunity for the world to work together, to walk through a doorway to new ways of working together and creating a better world.
And yet…those portals also opened up the citizens of the world to the spread of a deadly contagion. Why? A big reason was a reluctance to wear masks, as if the call to do so was some sort of oppression.
Natural portal – Photo: L. Weikel
More Reflection
So much of what I’m writing right now is just pouring out of my fingertips and demanding greater reflection.
There is something to the concept of thresholds being created (or at least represented) by the number 11 and the opportunities or perils, depending upon one’s perspective, that await discovery ‘on the other side.’
Perhaps I should have started writing this particular post a bit earlier this evening. Maybe I’ll engage in further contemplation in the days to come. All I know is, I feel like there’s something bigger right now for us to be looking at and perhaps learning from history.
Are we capable of moving through the portals available to us, calling a ceasefire to the insanity we’ve endured for the past four years (or more), and choosing to embrace a new vision of a future of cooperation?
(T-380)